Chapter 478: [ Si Mulan (2) ]

The Inner Mountain (inner sect) was a vast, endless landscape with blue skies and drifting clouds. In the distance, a boundless ancient forest could be seen.

Within the forest stood giant trees, that were comparable in size with the mountains. Groups of Monster Beasts would fly above the forest as their sharp cries echoed throughout the world. Even further away, there would be massive Spiritual Beasts fighting against each other occasionally. Their thunderous roars came from far away.

This land was like an ancient prehistoric land where no person had ever set foot on.

Meanwhile, immortal cranes flew above the clouds. The density of Spirit Qi here was many times greater than the Outer Mountain.

When it came to cultivation, this place could undoubtedly increase the speed of advancement of any cultivators, namely Qi Condensation Stage cultivators, Foundation Building Rank cultivators and so on.

There were a hundred and sixty candidates who had passed the verification and had come to the Inner Mountain. With the deacons leading the way, they headed towards the forbidden area of the Inner Mountain.

In order to enter the Inner Mountain, they only needed an inner sect pass. Every candidate would be given a temporary inner sect pass that could only be used once. They would use this temporary pass to enter the Inner Mountain to take the examination.

“I heard that Monsters in the Passing Cloud Labyrinth was ferocious and strong—I feared I wouldn’t last long, what do you think?” One of the females beside Si Mulan tried to start a conversation. However,

“Then leave.” Si Mulan just replied in a plain tone.

“Humph! What kind of tone is that?” The girl who asked obviously wasn’t pleased with Si Mulan's unapproachable tone. She knitted her eyebrows and decided not to care about her anymore. "Cheapskate..." Muttering as such, she left Si Mulan and approached another disciple, snorting.

"... ..." Si Mulan cared less. Right now, there were at least hundreds of people in the vicinity. However, there weren’t many conversations taking place; only small groups of people would stick together. Based on this, they probably hailed from the same location.

“As expected of the Passing Cloud Sect…”

Si Mulan glanced around and immediately praised the Sect within her heart. From what she sensed, everybody here had reached the Grandmaster Stage. Moreover, there were no less than 10 individuals who reached the King stage and all of them were age similar or just slightly above hers.

Furthermore, the people in front of her were only a handful of those that had entered the Passing Cloud Sect. Based on this, one could see how terrifying the competition was for the Passing Cloud Sect. This Sect has a great reputation among the famous Sects within the Divine Martial Continent!

This realization strengthened her decision to choose the Passing Cloud Sect!

At the back of Inner Mountain was a vast forest sealed with formations. This was the venue of their entrance examination—Passing Cloud Labyrinth.

Many higher-ups of Passing Cloud Sect paid much attention to this entrance examination. There was even a Half-Saint Cultivator who had come to watch.

Faint whines and roars of monsters were heard from the forest. The outside of the forest was stationed with an army of the Passing Cloud Sect, the Red Cloud Guards.

When they got closer to the forest, Si Mulan closed her eyes.

She used her spirit sense to examine the condition of the forest but it was in vain. Probably due to the strong formation covering the Labyrinth, her spirit sense was still not enough to break through it.

Without much choice, she shifted her attention to the five hundred Red Cloud Guards, and her eyes couldn’t help but sparkle. These guards were all King stage and above. The formation that they practiced was ancient. Their overall combat strength wasn’t any weaker than the Guards in Heavenly Fragrant Lotus City where her family, the main branch of the Si Family was located, and they might even be on par with the Sword Guards of the Ninth Heaven Imperial Capital--the most elites of guards and soldiers protecting the Jade Palace.

It seemed like Passing Cloud Sect wasn’t really as simple as it shows on the surface. Probably, those people who established a popular sect in the Emerald Turtle City weren’t fools at all.

As Si Mulan’s eyes swept across the Red Cloud Guards, a Peak Emperor elder who stood in the guards’ front row saw Si Mulan and knitted her brows immediately. Her name was Xiao Mengqi.

She was one of the few who knew Si Mulan’s true identity here. The heavenly third daughter of the Si Family and precious sister of the renowned genius, Si Louxi.

She was quite close to Si Louxi. Now, she was concerned about Si Mulan’s current condition because when she used her spirit sense, she could sense the spiritual senses of roughly four to five people that were possibly King Stage experts.

“What is this little girl doing? Why is she targeted by so many old men the moment she just entered? Can’t help it. She is exactly like Si Louxi. What should I do, then? If I move now, Sect Leader would certainly punish me for breaking the formation…”

Xiao Mengqi knew that Si Mulan was a Peak Grandmaster cultivator. She also heard about her Dual Element Cultivation Technique which had crushed the verification crystal ball, but then again, all of these were very logical to her.

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In order to break the verification crystal ball, the technique had to be at least an Ancestral level technique. It wasn’t unusual that Si Mulan had such a technique. Given her family background, as well as Si Louxi’s ability, though it wasn’t easy, it was certainly not difficult for her to create an Ancestral level technique for her treasured sister.

Furthermore, Si Mulan had reached the Peak Grandmaster realm at the age of sixteen. This could only be explained by her Dual Element Cultivation technique.

A King stage elder stood on the tall stage and talked about the rules of the examination endlessly.

The forest was divided into several regions. The year when Passing Cloud Sect was established, the peak Half Saint ancestor of Passing Cloud Sect explored the Passing Cloud Labyrinth and then established the sixth domain where he had stopped because he was injured by a Mid-Saint Monster King. Thus, Passing Cloud Labyrinth had become a forbidden place of Passing Cloud Sect.

Clearly, this forest was extremely dangerous and that there were still many things that were unknown about it.

The ancestor of Passing Cloud Sect only had the detailed information until the sixth domain because he knew there would only be danger after that region.

The only fortunate thing about the monsters in Passing Cloud Labyrinth was that they were restricted to leave the forest. They are unable to pass through it as if it was covered by an invisible barrier due to an ancient Formation array.

But as dangerous as it is, it was also one of the most important locations of the Passing Cloud Sect.

There was a saying in the Cultivation World, ‘the more dangerous the mountain, the better the chances of getting the secret of immortals.’

--Half of the labyrinth should have some kind of heaven-defying secret.

The examination venue was in the first to fifth domain region of the labyrinth. The candidates could move freely within almost hundreds of miles radius.

They were allowed to fight, kill, hunt and harvest. And it was also permitted to hide in one place for a month without doing any of those things.

But all of them know one thing the moment they tread on this path!

The road of cultivation was full of hardships and dangers. One needed bravery and persistence in order to improve. One could hide for a month but not for life. As such, one should confront the danger head-on, show bravery and contend against the heavens!

That is the essence of being a cultivator--!

Make danger into opportunity, go against the heavens and rebel against those who stand at the top of the ninth clouds...!

--Become an Immortal God!

In the first domain, there were monsters of Qi Condensation Stage. Killing any of them would give the candidate some points. Killing monsters below Apprentice Stage would gain them 10 points. As for level Apprentice to Master stage monsters, they would get twenty points, and for Grandmaster to King stage, they would get fifty to hundred points.

The level of difficulty increased as the cultivation of the monsters got higher and, obviously, the reward would also be higher.

An early King ranked monsters was worth over a hundred points, an intermediate King rank was worth two hundred, a late King rank was worth three hundred points and lastly, a peak King Rank would be worth five hundred points.

As for Emperor Rank monsters which can only be found at the Fifth and onward regions, they are almost a thousand points.

However, for hunting Grandmaster and King ranked monsters, one had to enter third to fourth regions. Of course, it wasn’t a place where the new candidates could casually enter. Even the King ranked low elders or those Emperor Ranked Elders would need to be extra careful when they enter this domain.

Just because one had the same cultivation with the monster, doesn't mean their powers are comparable. Even Emperor Realm Cultivator would find a hard time killing a King Ranked Monster!

Innate Physique and abilities made Monsters and Beasts had superiority against humans.

Aside from the fact that hunting monsters would bring them points, the candidates would also be able to learn how to survive and most importantly, be competitive.

Well, if you were afraid of danger, you could choose to harvest some herbs. The first region was grown with many herbs of mostly ten years old. Normally, only two kilograms of it could be exchanged for ten points.

Besides those ways of getting points, one could also use a more direct way—rob.

Once the person robbed the other person’s Jade Card and destroyed it, the points would be transferred to him automatically.

As for the victim whose card had been robbed, he could purchase another one for ten spirit stones, which was quite cheap, but he had to accumulate his points again from the start.

However, in their case, since this is an examination for recruitment, once the points are stolen and the card was destroyed, it would only mean one thing--failure. They would then be sent out and fails the examination.

Looking at her card, Si Mulan’s eyes narrowed slightly. This rule basically encourages students to steal from one another. As expected, the Passing Cloud Sect examination isn’t that simple. So this is the examination system, huh?

Suddenly, the atmosphere around the group turned strange. A few boys’ gazes became vigilant, and they all stepped away from one another.

This rule had made it extremely clear. Aside from being careful of the vicious lands and Magic Beasts, the greatest threat they could face was their fellow students.

“Regarding the Ranks for Killing Points, it will determine your position within the Passing Cloud Sect. The higher your rank, the more you will value by the Sect. Therefore, in order to not be disqualified and obtain a better status and resources within the Passing Cloud Sect, you should work hard on increasing your rank…”

“By then, the difference between all of you will be reflected by your success.”

Xiu Lei explained the rule of Passing Cloud Labyrinth in detail, and after speaking this much, suddenly several small roundish jade beads appeared in her hand, and she handed it over to everyone present.

“Keep this jade bead properly. This jade bead is a transfer bead. If you run into a mortal danger, just crush this jade bead into pieces, then you will be transferred out. And everyone can stay inside the Labyrinth for only a month. After a month, the power of formation covering the Labyrinth will automatically transfer you out.”

Xiu Lei gave them this roundish bead, so as to ensure their safety inside the Passing Cloud Labyrinth. She didn’t want them to fall here, because these peoples were the rare geniuses of Divine Martial Continent, and also the backing force of most of these peoples was extremely big, and she doesn’t want to provoke them for no apparent reason.

“... I believe you all know the rules of the Passing Cloud Labyrinth now. Well, I will only say this much, now all of you can enter.” Xiu Lei said towards everyone. After which, she directed a slight smile at the crowd before her figure slowly faded away.

With the disappearance of the beautiful woman, the crowd became completely silent. A few people’s eyes were twinkling.

The Examination formally starts now...!!